We be cool, then. Tomatoes and peppers in front. Even though it’s a northern exposure, that’s where most of the sun hits during the day because of fences and other houses shading the back.
Yeah, our pumpkin thing was less to be green and more because we ran out of sunny spots in the back yard and it was the only place left. Also, pumpkin plant leaves are huge and broad and work well as weed control.
If any neighbors complain offer them a couple of prime home grown tomatoes. They’ll stop complaining fast!
A couple years ago, after putting in my garden, I was cutting the front lawn. I felt a couple cucumber seeds in my pocket. So I stuck them in the ground in a bare spot where a tree had been removed. They grew well and I had front yard cucumbers. No one said a word to me. I did add a rod in the ground for them to wrap around.
Free tomatoes vs Tacky ?
Free tomatoes win. It’s your place do what you want with it.
My husband’s uncle, an ornery old bugger who’s in his late 70’s now, lives in a swanky community in Asheville (property was formerly part of the Biltmore Estate) where the HOA laws are so restrictive that you can’t even put a “For Sale” sign in the yard.
Well, Uncle is an avid gardener, but his backyard is north facing, plus his tennis court takes up most of the yard, so he decided to plant his victory garden in the front yard. Legend has it that it started as a small garden, with a few tomato and lettuce plants. But the neighbors complained to the HoA, and they sent him a chillingly nice letter asking him to move his little eyesore to the back yard.
Well, the last person you want to rankle is a stubborn old German because the next year, he expanded his garden. That resulted in another barrage of increasingly threatening letters, a shouting match at the HoA meeting, and ultimately an actual lawsuit filed against him. Which he fought with the passion of a man on death row. And he won. Ex post facto and all that. (FWIW, FUTURE neighbors cannot plant gardens in their front yards.)
His garden now takes up his ENTIRE front yard. He’s got lettuce, tomatoes, squash, watermelon…and corn. Rows and rows of corn that grows 6-8 feet tall. You can hardly see the house in the summer for the corn.
The HoA rues the day they asked him to move his little tomato patch to the back yard, and they are just counting the days until he croaks. 
Ahhh, my needlessly complicated plan to take over suburbia is proceeding nicely…
My uncle grows tomatoes and other veggies in pots on his front porch and to me they look quite attractive there.
As for those upside-down tomato planters, my brother tried one last year but said it was a real PITA. They don’t hold much dirt and need to be watered constantly and fertilized often, and his plants were all scraggly and he didn’t get much of a harvest (although I think that had more to do with the ungodly hot 'n humid summer we had last year, plus he’s forgetful.)
I planted a cute little herb garden and some green beans, cucumbers and carrots in my front yard. It’s south-facing and the only area that gets the perfect amount of sun. I’ve been waiting all summer for the yard police to knock on my door and confiscate my veggies. My plan of action was to plant it like there was no question that a garden should be there rather than the thirty-year-old overgrown shrubbery we yanked.
I’m holding strong and I think it’s very pretty. My chives and marigolds (to keep the rabbits away) are flowering nicely, and I’m hoping I can get others in this stodgy community to start growing their own food. I’d love to swap some home-grown goodies with the neighbors. Some of the younger families have complimented me on my guts(?). I think the folks who have been here thirty years are too afraid to say anything to me, even though it goes against the norm.
PunditLisa, I hope your uncle-in-law lives to be 193 and plants a bigger crop of corn every year!
by now you’ve prbly read about the woman who was arrested for growing a vegetable garden in her front yard…
Another one here who says go for it, it most certainly isn’t tacky.
Anyone who thinks that is tacky sounds a little insecure to me.
My neighbour has an upside down tomato planter hung in her front yard. The fact that it’s a tomato doesn’t bother me. The planter itself is butt ugly and bugs the hell out of me.
But that’s mainly because I found a great upside down planter that isn’t bright orange and you can plant flowers in the top of it. So I know there are nice options that arn’t expensive.
Is it tacky to grow tomatoes in the front yard?
I dunno… you be the judge- Frontgarden 11.
Don’t know if the Guard Goose is a faux pas??
When I first started the garden (*4 Bonny Best Tomatoes, 6 Cayennes and, 4 Thai Dragons) the tomato trellises (hoops) were quite futuristic juxtaposed against our topiary, Seussian, Scissorhands, lone bush. It looked quite appealing with those shiny wire hoops in angular composition against the spherical bush. Now I have a four foot tomato bush and more tomatoes and future blossoms than I will know what to do with.
I don’t think it’s tacky. Just make sure the car engine hanging from the chain from the front lawn tree isn’t blocking the plant’s sunlight. And put the taller growing sweetcorn patch behind it too so it doesn’t shade the plants.
Whoosh, or not? That sounds like a junkyard, Motorhead yard. Ricky Bobby Or Hillbilly Fred. That sounds South of the mASON dIXON
A little Jeff Foxworthy sprinkled in there. Haven’t you seen a redneck’s yard with a motor swinging in the trees? Anyways for what it’s worth, I support the idea of front yard tomatoes. But what the hell do I know? This is a thread regarding the issue of tacky vs not, a topic I am more than just clueless about.
Honestly, just make sure the tomato plants aren’t situated too close to the starting/idling of cars and the fumes, which can get on the fruits and will need to be cleaned off to safely eat. For anyone who has been in a cold clime and seen what an idling car will do to the snow near the exhaust pipe - the snow gets all sooty and dirty. Well, just think about what you’re going to eat and the fact that that residue isn’t as visible when it’s on your plants as it is when you see it painted on the snow. I like to keep my plants as far from cars as possible, including traffic in the street.
I can talk tomatoes all day long. But I know nothing about fashion.
Well, it’s just that I know some “genteel”, southern, white trash that have fallen into money and judgement. They seem to think they are better than hillbillies… My family were real rendnecks and holla Fokes… wore a red bandana fightin’ the oppressive mine owners.Brought you labor rights that people are givin up in deluded droves. I take pride everytime they call us Hillbilly ne’er do wells and inbreds. Biggest hypocrisy I have ever seen in tenneseeans. At least the West Virginians had the ingrown self relience and pride to side up with morally right abolitionists. Buncha bigots and drunks.
IMO…Tacky with a capital T! Even as we speak I am watching corn grow in my neighbors front yard!!! Ummmmm…flowers, maybe???